A Plague of Plastic be upon your home...

I...feel...a little bit guilty. Sick to my stomach guilty, like this:

As you know, we've resolved to not purchase anything made of plastic unless it's our only alternative. Well, this is a very, very difficult thing to do when you're used to buying whatever you want regardless of what it's made of. I could list a million examples of how we're breaking our resolution every day, but this one example is really bothering me. Last night, we were out and about running errands and we stopped to grab supper at Leeann Chin. The food was ok but between me and Jason, we used about 8 pieces of plastic that ended up in the garbage after only 15 minutes of use. Our plates, lids, silverware, cup - everything was plastic! So this doesn't make any sense to me. All the resources (water, electricity, etc.) used to make those plastic items which are used for about 15 minutes if they're lucky (the guy next to us ate in about 3 minutes!) and then they're tossed. Is it worth it? And we're contributing to the problem. Well folks, we're a work in progress - we are not even close to perfection. This change is hard! There are restaurants that offer quick food which do not require you to use disposable plastic - Chipotle is the first that comes to mind. The burritos are wrapped in paper backed foil, the burrito bowls are a paper product and their cups are paper, also. As long as we don't use utensils, it's an entirely plastic-free option. I'll need to try and come up with a longer list of options for us so that in a pinch, we can make a good choice.

Now, so of you may be thinking to yourselves as I often do, "Aren't there more pressing issues to feel guilty about? Like genocide in Darfur, the AIDS crisis, the healthcare crisis in America, etc., etc.?" The answer is yes and I feel just as strongly, if not stronger, about those issues. But that doesn't negate the seriousness of the problem of plastic. Keep in mind that the plastic currently existing in our world will NEVER go away. NEVER. It doesn't degrade. It only becomes smaller and smaller molecules of plastic which are filling our landfills, our lakes, our rivers, our oceans, our forests, our children's bodies and on and on. Hence, our resolution.

Beth Terry from Oakland, CA has taken this about 1000 times farther than we have and is doing an amazing job eliminating plastic from her life. Take a look at this list she compiled on her website (http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/) of ways to stop using plastic. We will continue to try and slowly make these changes and hopefully be more successful than we were yesterday. What's your take on this issue? Are you doing anything to eliminate unnecessary plastic in your life?

Eco-friendly High Chairs

Eliot is now eating solids and is ready for a high chair. Since we have resolved not to buy any plastic unless it's our only option, a plastic high chair was out of the question. However, there are lots of nice wooden high chairs on the market, so it wasn't difficult to find an eco-friendly and baby safe alternative. These three were our favorites.

Stokke Tripp Trapp
Chair Price: $229.99
Cushion Price: $39.99

Before we started researching high chairs, we thought that this would be the one we would choose. Both the seat and footrest of this high chair are adjustable so it can be used for kids 6 months of age through adulthood (it holds up to 300 lbs). It's ergonomically designed and made of cultivated beechwood. It meets US and international safety standards and has a five-point safety harness. It's JPMA certified. There are 9 different wood finishes to choose from including nice bright colors. A cushion can be purchased separately and there are 7 color/pattern options. There's a 7-year warranty on all wooden components. A really nice feature of this chair is that it is meant to be pulled up to your dining table so that your child can eat with the rest of the family. But there is no option for a separate tray, which was something we wanted. Overall, we found it to be a very well designed and attractive chair. It was also the most expensive option.

Kuster K2
Chair Price: $175.00
Cushion Price: $24.99

This new high chair from the UK is adjustable and can be used for kids 6 months of age through 6 years old. It's ergonomically designed and has a simple folding mechanism which makes it easy to store. It has a removable tray, a five-point safety harness, a basket for storing things like bibs (very handy!), self levelling feet and a completely adjustable tray that is removable and dishwasher safe. The chair comes in 4 different finishes and there are 3 cushion options (purchased separately). This chair is made of sustainable beechwood. We really liked the look and function of this chair but ultimately we decided that we wanted something that was made entirely of wood. Additionally, we weren't sure whether the tray was made of a safe plastic, so we chose the final of our three options, the Anka, by Svan. To be fair, I'm sure that we could have confirmed the tray material by contacting the manufacturer.

Anka, by Svan
Chair Price: $169.99 (Cushion included)
Extra Cushion $39.95

This chair was exactly what we were looking for. It's well designed and well priced, attractive, environmentally friendly and baby safe. The chair is made entirely of sustainable wood, except for the tray cover, which is made of phthalate and bisphenol A (BPA)-free plastic. The included chair cushion is made of PBDE-free foam. The tray is removable so it allows us the option of having Eliot sit at the table with us or use a tray of his own. It can be used as a high chair or a booster seat (through 5 years old or 50 lbs). By the time Eliot is 5, he should be able to sit at the table with us on a regular dining room chair. This chair has an ergonomic design with an adjustable seat and footrest which provides good support and it folds for easy storage. The tray cover is dishwasher-safe and the chair cushion is machine-washable which should help with cleaning! It comes in 3 different finishes and there are five cushion colors. It meets both US and international safety standards and is JPMA and ASTM certified. We really love this chair and can't wait to start using it. After we get it set-up and use it for a while, I'll post again to let you know how it's working for us. Also, if you were just dying to know: the strawberry rhubarb pie that I made for the 4th tasted fantastic, including the crust!

Summer Goals (and goodies!)

Three of our goals this summer were: (1) to have a successful garden, (2) to set-up a rain barrel for outside watering needs and (3) to begin composting. All three goals accomplished! Actually, we'll need to wait and see how well our garden grows...but so far, so good! Take a look at how it's doing today. The beans are up (under the peas stick?!) and they need to be thinned out in a couple of days.

Next to the beans are two heirloom tomato plants. Our raspberry bush is growing well and it looks like we may have a few berries this summer...I wasn't expecting any until next year.

The cucumbers have started to thrive and should hopefully crawl up the lattice instead of laying on the ground - this should make them easier to pick.

We've already picked the basil twice for pesto and pasta - so nice to have fresh basil whenever you want it! The green peppers are doing well and the cherry and Beefsteak tomato plants seem to grow inches every day!

And here's our patio tomato plant, also thriving.






The rain barrel is set-up (thanks Jason!) and ready to go. Now we just need some rain! Does our set-up look correct? I was wondering if we needed some type of screen over the opening?
















The compost bin is also set-up (thanks Jason, again!) and we're using it daily. I don't mind composting for the most part, but the one thing I really hate is the flies when I have to open the lid to add new waste. Ick! So gross!



Now for the goodies...tonight I baked two pies from scratch! We had tons of rhubarb that was ready (no picture because I had already cut it), so I baked strawberry rhubarb pies. This was my first attempt at making my own pie dough and I think it turned out quite well. I tried to make two little flowers and a leaf on the top - you can't really make it out in the picture. It looks nice in real life - I'll have let you know if it tastes good, too.

Happy 4th of July!

Cloth Diapering

As of Sunday, we've officially switched to cloth diapers. So exciting! We had been using gDiapers until Eliot grew out of the small size very quickly (he's a chunky monkey) and then we used Seventh Generation and Nature Babycare disposables for a while. We really liked the gDiapers (very new and innovative) but found them to be a little bit expensive for us. You have to purchase both the 'little g' pants (at $16.99 - $18.99 each) and the liners ($14.49 for 32-40 liners) which together cost more than either disposables or cloth. We couldn't in good conscience keep using disposables, so we switched to cloth. Currently, we have a stash of bum genius 3.0 and Happy Heinys, as well as some different inserts, three PUL wetbags and about 30 cloth wipes. The whole shebang cost about $450 which would have been around 8 months of disposables, not including wipes. Considering that he will likely be in diapers for another year and a half to two years, it was completely worth it. *** Shameless Pitch: We purchased our diapers from Abby's Lane. They have fantastic customer service! ***


So far, I'm totally in love with them. Both the bum genius and the Happy Heinys work great ~ no leaks whatsoever! They're super soft and I imagine that they feel much better for Eliot than paper/plastic disposables. Washing them has been very easy - his first poopy diaper came completely clean with no stains after a cold rinse and a cold wash cycle with 1/4 the amount of detergent recommended. We used Purex Free and Clear for our first couple of loads but I have a huge order of Charlie's Soap on the way, which we plan on using regularly. We think we'll end up washing every other or every third day and we will definitely be line drying, rather than using our dryer. The cloth wipes are really nice, also. I made my own wipe solution (water, olive oil, 1/4 tsp. castile soap, 4-5 drops tea tree essential oil, 4-5 drops lavender essential oil and a splash of vinegar) and we just spray the wipe before we use it and toss it in the wet bag with the dirty diaper.

In terms of environmental impact, there is currently some debate whether cloth or disposables are better. A recent study by an advisory board to the UK Environment Agency came to the conclusion that cloth diapers had equal the impact of disposable diapers. (You can read the whole 200+ page report here.) They found that since cloth diapers are made primarily of cotton, (requiring pesticides, fertilizer and significant amounts of water) and they require both electricity and water to clean, they were not any better for the environment than disposables.

However, in my opinion, there are many things cloth diaper users can do to lessen their impact. For example, we wash our diapers in cold water rather than hot, we use an earth-friendly detergent, we wash them only when we have a full load, we will be line-drying our diapers and we will be purchasing Windsource® energy from Xcel Energy, which is clean wind-generated electricity. Did you know that washing cloth diapers at home uses about 70 gallons of water every three days, which is about the same as a toilet-trained child or adult flushing the toilet five to six times a day? Our additional laundry will equal about 3 extra loads per week.

Another advantage to cloth diapers is that they prevent vast amounts of waste (including human feces) from being deposited in our landfills. Mothering magazine proposed that there is a "...serious threat of contamination from disposable diapers, because of human sewage going into landfills. The disposal of human waste in residential garbage is technically prohibited, and instructions on disposable diaper packaging recommend that you shake out any fecal matter into the toilet before disposing of it; but in practice this is almost never done. Live viruses in the feces, such as the polio vaccine, can live in landfills for a long period, and if there were ever any leakage, could potentially contaminate a community's drinking water."

Over 18 billion disposable diapers are thrown in landfills each year, taking as many as 500 years to decompose. Disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food & beverage containers. According to the Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation, it takes nearly 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or a quarter-million trees, to manufacture the disposable diapers that are used in the United States.

Lastly, there are huge benefits for babies being diapered in cloth versus disposables. As I discussed in a previous post, there are toxic chemicals in disposable diapers including traces of dioxin (an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process which is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals - banned in most countries but not the U.S.), tributyl-tin or TBT, (a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals) and sodium polyacrylate (a type of super absorbent polymer (SAP), which becomes a gel-like substance when wet). In addition to limiting Eliot's exposure to these chemicals, cloth diapers also help him "feel" wet which should assist in potty training, they are gentler on his skin, they "breathe" better than disposables and they're cuter (that part is just my expert opinion).

We've decided that the best choice for our family is cloth - what about you?

50 Ways to Help the Planet

While stumbling this evening, I came across this website, 50 Ways to Help the Planet by Wire & Twine. They believe that "going green" doesn't have to be a daunting task that means sweeping life changes. Simple things can make a big difference if we all participate. You're probably familiar with a lot of these ideas, but here's some of my favorites which I challenge you to incorporate into your life!

} Change your light by switching to CFL bulbs ~ I hope all of you have already done this. CFLs are a bit more expensive upfront, but they last far longer than a traditional bulb and you can even get dimmable CFLs (we currently have them in our dining room chandelier).

} Diaper with a conscience ~ Did you know that by the time a child is toilet trained, a parent will change between 5,000 and 8,000 diapers (it feels like I've already changed that many diapers!), adding up to approximately 3.5 million tons of waste in U.S. landfills each year?! Also, regular disposable diapers are toxic - no joke! They contain the following:

• Traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process which is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S.. (1)
• Tributyl-tin (TBT), a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals. (2)
• Sodium polyacrylate, a type of super absorbent polymer (SAP), which becomes a gel-like substance when wet. A similar substance had been used in super-absorbancy tampons until the early 1980s when it was revealed that the material increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome. (3) According to Mothering Magazine, no studies have been done on the long-term effects of this chemical being in contact with a baby's reproductive organs 24 hours a day for upwards of two years.

Do you really want to expose your baby to these toxins? We certainly don't and that's why we originally used gdiapers and now we're switching to cloth, for economic reasons. I'll let you know how our cloth diaper adventure goes. (If you aren't interested in cloth, there are better disposable alternatives, like Seventh Generation or Tushies.)

} Rethink bottled water ~ This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, so I love this tip! Did you know that at least 25% of bottled water is actually just tap water, including Aquafina and Dasani!? Would you be willing to pay $1.25 for a glass of tap water? Did you know that according to the Container Recycling Institute, some 85% of used water bottles in the U.S. become garbage or litter? Additionally, incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals and buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade! Finally, many people reuse their PET/PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) water bottles even though they are only meant for one-time use. More research is needed to determine whether these bottles leach toxic chemicals into your water after many uses and even if they don't, the bottles are difficult to wash properly which can make them susceptible to bacterial contamination. Yuck! If you want to have water with you at all times like me, invest in a reusable (and cool!) aluminum bottle like Sigg or a stainless steel bottle, like Klean Kanteen.

} Use your cruise control ~ Numerous studies have shown that maintaining a constant speed conserves gas and cruise control is an easy way to do this (as long as you're not driving through hilly terrain). With gas prices above $4/gallon, I can't imagine anyone not wanting to improve their gas mileage.

} Telecommute to save gas ~ I just like this tip because I get to telecommute two days a week, which means working in bed with my pajamas on all day. Can't you just picture it?

} Plastic bags suck ~ According to Worldwatch Institute, plastic bags start as crude oil, natural gas, or other petrochemical derivatives, which are transformed into chains of hydrogen and carbon molecules known as polymers or polymer resin. After being heated, shaped, and cooled, the plastic is ready to be flattened, sealed, punched, or printed on. Each year, Americans throw away some 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags and only 0.6 percent of plastic bags are recycled! That's disturbing but even more so is the existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vast swath of ocean twice the size of Texas which is filled with a toxic plastic stew. Seriously...what are we doing!?

If you're interested in reading more, here's a great article, entitled Plastic Ocean from Best Life magazine (or you can just google it - there's a ton of info out there). There are so many alternatives to both plastic and paper bags that there's really no excuse for continuing to use them. However, I am guilty of this even though we own enough canvas bags for all our groceries/shopping. That's my new resolution, remembering my canvas bags when I go shopping. I'll start tomorrow by keeping them in my car. If you want some canvas bags of your own, check our these retailers: Eco-bags, Envirosax, Flip & Tumble and Baggu.

Because of what we know about plastic, we are trying to eliminate it from our lives in all aspects whenever possible. This subject warrants its own post(s) due to the amount of information, so stay tuned. Good Greening, everyone!